To the credit of the Mahinda Rajapaksa
regime, with the end of the war in 2009 there has been some widespread
development of infrastructure. Despite this there
are many disturbing aspects. The development of infrastructure has come at the
cost of heavy indebtedness. The Colombo City “cleaning up”’ has displaced many
long-time residents without adequate compensation. The service industry has
grown, but there are serious breakdowns in the provision of basic services,
notably health, education and law and order.

It
is most worrying that political, economic and military powers are being
steadily concentrated in the hands of the ruling Rajapaksa family. Loyalty to
the country and the key to power and influence are equated to the complete
allegiance to the ruling family. The process of governance has been
increasingly militarised with the Defence Ministry acquiring development
projects and severely interfering with civilian administration.

The presidency, the regime and the state have
become a single unit under the centralised personal command of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa. Such deviations from bourgeois democracy have weakened the
authority and legitimacy of the state. The government has also become
increasingly authoritarian. Dissent is treated with increasing intolerance,
with the ruling family using a carrot and stick approach to cajole, co-opt and
buy over dissenting elements. State of Emergency regulations have now become
the norm, enabling the government to crackdown on dissent on the pretext of
preventing a revival of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The interests of the first family take
precedence over the enforcement of law and order. Those who are loyal to the
family seem to have impunity from punishment, while those who disagree and
dissent are punished severely.

The constitution of Sri Lanka grants absolute
and unconditional immunity to the president, and is not subject to judicial
review. This has encouraged and entrenched a culture of ongoing impunity, which
directly works against good governance and the rule of law. Perpetrators of gross human rights abuses have not been
held accountable even when the allegations were credible. The regime has
provided immunity to some of those on both sides of the civil war, who had
committed serious human rights violations. A backdrop of deeply entrenched impunity
has emboldened the perpetrators by providing the potential confidence of
continuously enjoying such impunity. The regime has also maintained a
deliberate lack of transparency even in the cases where serious abuses and
crimes have been looked into.

Investigations related to many crimes such as
-- the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda in Colombo,
disappearance of Frontline Socialist Party activists Lalith and Kuhan in
Jaffna, assassination of editor Lasantha Wickremetunge in Colombo, the massacre
of 17 aid workers of Action Contre la Faim in Muttur, the massacre of five high
school students in Trincomalee, and the assassination of arrested criminal
suspects mostly in Colombo -- have not led to any of the perpetrators being
brought to justice.

Elections, though held regularly, are marred
by violence, intimidation and flagrant violation of election laws mainly by the
regime. Thus undermining opportunities for free and fair expression of the
people’s will. Harassment and intimidation of human rights activists,
independent lawyers and journalists persist. Abolition of the 17th Amendment to
the constitution and implementation of the 18th Amendment have contributed to
the deterioration of law and order situation and proliferation of election
malpractices.

The abolition of executive presidency and appointment of independent
commissions are being given priority at this presidential election. Some may argue
that these issues have nothing to do with the day to day problems affecting the
lives of ordinary people in Sri Lanka, such as cost of living, employment
opportunities, education and security. If we think deeply, we can see that the
issues of governance are inextricably linked with the issues affecting our day
to day lives. Let me cite a few examples to explain how they are linked to each
other.

Free trade
zones

The 14 free trade zones (FTZ) in Sri Lanka employ about 250,000 workers.
Their minimum monthly salary is about 7000 Sri Lankan Rupees. About 80 per cent
of these are female migrant workers. They are denied any right to industrial
action against their employers. The factories in the FTZ zones have failed to
respect basic labour rights leading to job insecurity, declining working
conditions and downward pressure on wages.

Ansell Lanka workers picket (photo WSWS).

Ansell Lanka is a factory in the Biyagama Export Processing Zone. In
1994, when thousands of Ansell workers demonstrated against the suppression of
their union rights, one worker was killed in police shootings. The
Bratex garment workers’ strike in 2011 is another graphic example. About 1700
Bratex workers stopped work to demand a salary increase and opposed the
suppression of their right to organise. The company responded by sacking 38
workers.

Ansell Lanka refused to accept the trade union of
their employees as representing the workers in the factory. These workers went on strike again in October 2013. The company without
any consultations with the workers or their trade union used strong-armed
tactics to intimidate union leaders, and arbitrarily decided to raise
production targets and cut incentive payments. As a result, workers’ monthly
productivity incentives were reduced by around 5000 rupees. The striking
workers continued their industrial actions by setting up a camp at the bus stop
outside the factory.

Management
used contract workers to break the strike and obtained a court order to remove
workers camped in front of the plant after making false complaints to police
that the strikers attacked the contractors. The company later terminated nearly
300 workers, who were on strike for nearly two months over increased production
line targets in a witch-hunt against the trade union. The Rajapaksa regime that
is said to be protecting the workers interests in reality has been defending
the company’s interests.

Fisher folk protesting in Chilaw.

In February 2012, more than 5000 fisherpeople including women and
children protested in Chilaw against diesel and kerosene price increases as
part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed austerity package. About
15,000 people were in a standoff with the police and army on the beach. The
police imposed a curfew against the peaceful protestors and tear gassed them.
Special Task Force (STF) officers fired at them with live bullets without any
warning, killing one fisherman and wounding several others.

Special Task Force before the shooting at the protest.

The shooting was a calculated attack, ordered by Rajapaksa’s regime. The
government was ordering these attacks while preparing to sign a new agreement
with the IMF to obtain the final instalment of a previously agreed IMF loan
totalling US$800 million. The regime had promised to allow fishing anywhere in
the sea after the war, but later prohibited fisherpeople from fishing even in
nearby areas such as Kalpitiya. The region rich in biodiversity was instead
earmarked for building hotels and adventure tourism.

In August
2013, the Sri Lankan army used force to disperse 5000 villagers in
Rathupaswala, who demanded clean drinking water. The villagers attributed the
contamination of ground water supply to the effluent dumped from a glove
factory. Three people who were engaged in a
peaceful demonstration against the factory were killed and about 50 others were
seriously injured as a result of the calculated intervention of the army.

The army had
launched coordinated attacks from three main points using assault rifles.
Before the army turned its guns on the public, a senior military official
commanding the troops delivered a stern message to the media crews covering the
protest to leave. Journalists who refused to leave, had to flee later to save
their lives. They were clearly singled out as evidenced by the fact that the
soldiers took aim at them. The army confiscated their microchips and cameras
were smashed. As usual, the regime’s spokespersons alleged foreign involvement
and political party sponsorship for the violence, and ascribed responsibility for
the violence to the media.

Human
rights

Despite
international outcries and local outrage, the Rajapaksa regime used parliament
and impeached the chief justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake. Rajapaksa removed
her from office in January 2013. This case highlighted the regime’s
interference with the independence of the judiciary, and underlined the need to
restore the independence of the Elections Commission, the National Human Rights
Commission and the Police Commission.

Bandaranayake
was not provided with an opportunity to present her case or defend herself
without being subject to intimidation. Individuals and organisations close to
the regime engaged in a virulent campaign against those who opposed the
impeachment and even labelled them traitors, and branded their opposition as
part of an international conspiracy. In the aftermath of the impeachment
several prominent lawyers who were in the forefront defending the chief justice
were subjected to death threats by a so-called Patriotic Force that Liberated
the Country.

Founding editor of the Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge was brutally killed on January 8, 2009. The Memorial Vigil organised by SAMAGI (Force for Unity) in January 2014 (Courtesy: Passion Parade blogspot).

In May 2014,
the police imposed a ban on media coverage of a defamation case filed by the secretary
to the Ministry of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The media was not allowed to
cover the cross examination of Rajapaksa and was warned not to film his arrival
or departure. High-ranking police officers threatened media personal with years
of detention. Rajapaksa was giving evidence in a case filed by him against the Sunday
Leader newspaper regarding a series of articles published in 2008 alleging
huge corruption involved in buying MIG fighter jets for the Sri Lankan Air
Force. Banning media from covering the proceedings of such a vital case of
public interest is a clear violation of our right to information.

In June 2014, the Ministry of Defence intervened in a workshop organised
by Transparency International to train and encourage journalists to write
investigative reports on the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) to ensure good governance. The workshop could
not be conducted due to the intimidation exerted on venue management by the
Ministry of Defence.

Peace remains elusive

When we speak
of factory workers, fisher folk or journalists, let us not forget that we are in
fact talking about our fellow brothers and sisters who like us are trying to
earn a living. They are only doing their job, and as you do, they also find it
difficult to survive due to cost of living pressures and perform professionally.
The price they pay is, being daily subject to intimidation and death threats.
As you can see, these day to day issues are inextricably linked to the broader
issues of the executive presidency, and its direct role in the island’s lack of
democracy, rule of law and good governance.

The problems
of the non-Sinhala communities such as Tamils, Up Country Tamils and Muslims in
Sri Lanka are also similar. They too consider issues such as cost of living,
education and employment opportunities as important and suffer from military
intimidation and interference that they face in their day to day lives.

The war
ended in 2009, but real peace remains elusive. The regime needs to be credited
with settling most of the displaced, except for a few thousand who are still being held in
detention, and child combatants have also been
rehabilitated. But on the flipside military
administration continues in the north and east, even six years after the
military defeat of the LTTE. The military continue to occupy vast strips of
productive land.

Despite the
resettlement and rehabilitation efforts, many of the displaced people of the north
and the east [Tamil areas] are still homeless, traumatised and unemployed. No
serious effort has been made to develop a meaningful and lasting political
solution to the national question. Thousands of LTTE suspects still languish in
prison without trial. Furthermore, systematic sexual torture, rape and
trafficking for sex slavery of women in north and east still persists. In fact,
due to the heavy militarisation, an increase in sexual assaults and other
abuses of women has been reported. There are hundreds of court cases filed by
landowners who lost their land due to the policy of military acquisition of
land adopted by the regime. The military’s encroachment on civilian life and
activities such as education, agriculture, and tourism continues.

Recommendations
of the final report of the Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation (LLRC) of November 2011 have been ignored. The Sri Lankan regime
has avoided investigating allegations of war crimes against military personnel
and government servants. While these may still remain as issues specific to the
north and the east, such issues have now become to dominate the entire island.

A choice to make

Do you not think the situation in the country
where we were born and bred requires concerted action to bring back the rule of
law, democracy and good governance? Do we want to live freely as human beings
or to be run like the inhabitants of an animal farm under the increasingly autocratic
rule of the Rajapaksa regime? We have a choice to make. The Rajapaksa regime
will never allow people in Sri Lanka to live as decent human beings and enjoy
their freedoms and rights. Under the executive presidency, the expediential
increase in the use of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to do the
regime’s dirty political work, harassment, intimidation, violence, kidnapping,
disappearance and extrajudicial killing of political opponents, journalists and
human rights activists appear to be in the genes of this regime.

The regime has patronised religious extreme groups that have contributed
to destroying the harmonious values of co-existence of peoples of different
socio-cultural backgrounds. It has established a culture of fraud and corruption,
and nepotism and crony capitalism to levels that had never been seen before.
The political goons of the regime have become extravagantly rich, while the
living standards of the ordinary people have grown worse day by day due to the
pressures of the high cost of living.

All this needs to change.

On January 8, 2015, we need to remove from power this oppressive regime
through the ballot, creating a democratic space for every individual and every
community to live freely, fairly and as human beings and not in fear and
subservience to the regime. Each and every vote needs to be utilised for this
sacred purpose.

I strongly believe that the executive
presidency needs to be abolished as it will otherwise underpin the future
possibility of a sustained, autocratic and authoritarian regime. That is why I
request that all of us support the common opposition candidate and ensure his
victory despite our political differences. The program and policy positions
proposed by the common opposition candidate are more inclined towards good
governance.

It is in this light, I use this opportunity
to appeal and urge all individuals, organisations, association and communities
who value democratic rights, freedoms and consensual approach to constitutional
reforms, who reject nepotism, family rule, fraud and corruption, who abhor
autocratic rule, who believe in the urgent
need to reverse the culture of impunity, who
cherish equality before the law, who treasure equity of opportunity, who
appreciate participatory democracy, who respect the identity of the other; and all
those who want a thousand flowers to bloom in the equanimity of good governance
-- to come forward and support the common opposition candidate to assure his
victory at this election. This is the last chance for peaceful change. If the
current regime returns to power, some groups may not see the ballot as a useful
tool for changing regimes.

Whatever the outcome of the presidential
election on January 8, 2015, the struggle for good governance in Sri Lanka will
continue. The results of a general election that could be held before May 2015
will also impact upon the effectiveness and power of the presidency.

Despite the reservations I have about the
policy positions adopted by the common opposition candidate, I still believe
that by assuring his victory, at least some small democratic gains can be
reaped so that the civil society can exploit in its march towards building a
fairer, more just society. There will be greater space for widespread
discourse, awareness raising and advocacy campaigns.

Naturally, there is an inherent risk that the
opposition, once elected may not stand by their pledges. However, if we are
able to keep the momentum for change, through maintaining the current dynamics
of the peoples’ desire for change, the opposition will have no option but to
implement what they have pledged. Of course, we cannot expect solutions to all
the socioeconomic and political woes of Sri Lanka from the regime we newly
elect. I believe there will be better opportunities to do that if there is a
change of government in the island. We need to be realists and work patiently.

I, therefore, encourage all individuals
and groups who aspire for democracy and good governance in Sri Lanka to work
towards electing a new regime to put an end to the steadily contracting
democratic norms. I encourage all concerned to make use of this small window of
opportunity creatively, imaginatively and non-violently.